THE National Plant, 

 Flower and Fruit 

 Guild, of which 

 Mrs. John Wood 

 Stewart is president has 

 again found how to do one _ 



of those extremely useful 



things which eveiyone wonders hadn't been done 

 before. Just as last year their truck brought in the 

 apples which the near-by farmers said were not 

 worth marketing and sold them at a low price 

 and in goodly quantity to those who wanted ap- 

 ples and hadn't been able to buy. This Guild 

 saw the emptiness of the camp and started to 

 remedy it: 



"Whoever has visited a soldiers' camp, must 

 depart with a feeling of pity that in this land of 

 bounty we cannot ofFer our boys more cheerful, 

 more attractive and more homelike surround- 

 ings. ... It may not be the duty of the 

 authorities — perhaps it is not pre-essential — 

 but it is the duty of the folks at home to help 

 in a movement which will express to our fighters 

 our appreciation of what they are doing, and 

 our desire to make their Camps a pleasant 

 place to live in. . . . This Guild is call- 

 ing for every man, woman, and child to join the 

 army of camp Beautifiers — and see that every 

 camp blossoms forth into a spot of beauty." 



/"\AMP UPTON was the first to welcome this 

 ^ idea of the National Plant, Flower and Fiuit 

 Guild, and commanding officers of other camps 

 have been warmly sympathetic. The Guild 

 requested of the camp officer to appoint a com- 

 mittee composed of the permanent organiza- 

 tions of his camp — Y. M. C. A., Red Cross, 

 Knights of Columbus, etc., whose duty would be 

 to form a planting plan, prepare the ground, and 

 see that the plants were properly set out and 

 cared for. 



Attractive posters have been distributed 

 through likely centres, and the Guild's offer is 

 catholic enough, "If any one knows places where 

 these can do good and are wanted, send us word 

 and we shall promptly do the rest." 



The Guild's circular had a peculiarly strong 

 appeal to gardeners — especially to intelligent 

 and thrifty gardeners — it was a circular so very 

 explicit and to the point — the idea being, "enlist 

 your garden, give of your surplus, and the ma- 

 terial will be abundant enough." 



Again: "We do not wish you to rob your gar- 

 den, nor to sacrifice any of the plants, dear to 

 your heart — but there is a way of making 

 your garden do its bit, to the betterment of 

 itself." 



"No doubt you have Iris, Phloxes, Peonies, 

 Larkspur and other hardy plants * * * which 

 would prosper more if they were lifted and 

 divided * * * 



"And then you will find that your Hollyhocks 

 have seeded themselves, and that you have hun- 

 dreds of young plants growing * * *. We can 

 use millions of Hollyhocks. 



"And then you have some shrubs or bushes 

 that have grown too large, i or you have more 

 Roses than you care for. We and the boys will 

 be glad to have them. 



"Have you sod to spare? We can use it by 

 the thousands of yards. Of course we shall be 

 grateful for even a small amount. 



"Have you a cold frame? Why not sow some 

 seeds of hardy plants such as Pansies, Forget- 

 me-nots, Larkspur, Foxglove, Hollyhock, etc. 

 We will be glad to have them next spring; and 

 then we want your surplus of Dahlias, Cannas, 

 Gladiolus, Lilies, or any other root which you 

 keep through the winter and of which you always 

 have more than you know what to do with. * * * 

 * * Prepare for next spring, and when you 

 send your list to the seedsman get enough 

 seeds so that you can spare us thousands of 

 Asters, Zinnias, Marigolds, Calendula, Phlox 

 Drummondi, Calliopsis, Petunias, or any other 

 good annuals. 



"We want those camps to be a riot of color 

 next year. 



UNCLE SAM'S GARDENING 



A News Feature of National Current Activities 



"If you are not within driving distance of any 

 camp, send to us your name and the name of 

 your nearest camp, and we will send you a camp- 

 garden label. 



"Pack and ship the plants, and we will refund 

 the money you pay for expressage or postage." 



'IXT'HAT gardener could resist? According to 



* » the results very few resisted and as the 

 fall closed the Camps bid fair to drop the wilder- 

 ness, or rather desert, aspect, and to blossom 

 like the Rose. 



I venture the opinion that the Guild's seductive 

 and compelling circular was the work of an ex- 

 pert gardener. I hear also that nurserymen and 

 florists responded handsomely to the appeal — one 

 firm giving 1,000 Gladiolus bulbs for every camp 

 in the country. Others have filled hundreds of 

 window boxes and delivered them to the camp, 

 some gave Geraniums by the thousands, others 

 presented handsome young evergreens. May 

 the good work go on as long as the camps exist. 

 The address of the National Plant, Flower and 

 Fruit Guild is 70 Fifth Avenue, and the National 

 Chairman of the Soldiers' Camp Gardens is 

 Maurice Fuld. 



/~>NE of the most useful things that garden 

 ^"^ clubs and the various food production asso- 

 ciations will be doing this winter will be ac- 

 quainting themselves with work done in other 

 states and by other organizations. During the 

 summer and early autumn all of us were too busy 

 to do more than put through the immediate work. 

 Among the states which have done interesting 

 work is Maryland, in which state the Council of 

 Defense was the first to offer people not only 

 advice — which is easy, and often more blessed 

 to give than to receive — but real help, purchasing 

 tractors, which could be used in preparing the 

 land. Along this line of help for the small 

 farmer offering the use of state-owned tractors 

 and equipment such as he is unable to buy, and 

 yet the lack of which place him at a disadvantage 

 commercially with larger owners, will do more 

 toward stimulating his effort in production than 

 many pamphlets. It will also bring about a 

 spirit of real cooperation with the government, 

 while the farmer will feel that the government is 

 cooperating with him to make his work a success. 



"\7ACANT lot gardens are no new thing for 



* Baltimore, for the city last year reported no 

 less than twenty thousand food-producing back- 

 yard gardens. Years before other cities went en- 

 thusiastically a-gardening, the Baltimore women 

 were getting the work admirably under way, 

 with lectures and contests and various forms of 

 garden propaganda and showing colored lantern 

 slides of charming French and English gardens — 

 tiny working men's and peasants' gardens; not 

 de luxe estates — a form of garden-propaganda 

 one wishes could be more widely used. It is a 

 delightful type of gardening and while we are 

 making our gardens highly productive of food, 

 we might as well make them productive of beauty 

 also. That the Baltimore war gardens should 

 have been highly successful was to be expected. 

 Miss Martha O'Neill has been a moving spirit 

 in the Baltimore gardens for some years, and 

 Baltimore has had a very competent garden 

 superintendent in Mrs. Adelaide Derringer, 

 who had her training at the Lowthorpe School 

 of Landscape Gardening and has done very able 

 work — especially in the Baltimore war gardens. 



T~TIE National Prize Certificate, No. 1, for 

 *■ canned vegetables put up by a war gardener, 

 has been awarded to Mrs. Frank P. Brown of 

 Cincinnati. Mrs. Brown took first prizes that 

 amounted to #ico. With this she bought 



150 



WarSavings Stamps. Her 

 garden was 100 x 150 feet. 

 She grew enough for her 

 table all summer, and in 

 addition put up 125 cans- 

 of vegetables and had 25, 

 bushels of potatoes. 

 The National War Garden Commission, which 

 is responsible for the awards, reports two other 

 Ohio women among the first nine blue ribbon 

 winners. Certificate No. 2. went to Mrs. Isa- 

 bella Jermain, an Indian woman of the Lac da 

 Flambeau Agency in Wisconsin. Other women 

 who have been reported to the National Com- 

 mission as deserving National recognition are: 

 Miss Flora Krugman, Elyria, Ohio; Miss Alice 

 Voorhees, Bay Head, N. J.; Miss Valesca Diener, 

 Burlington, Wis.; Mrs. W. H. Derriom, Rock- 

 wood, Tenn.; Miss Elizabeth Lindner, Cincinnati, 

 Ohio; Miss Alma McManus, DeWitt, Iowa; 

 Mrs. T. A. Chittenden, Akron, Ohio. 



TV/fARION, Ind., claims the credit of having 

 *■*■*■ more war gardens than any town of its 

 size in North America. J. DeWolf, of the 

 Marion War Garden Association reports 14,000 

 war gardens in a population of 27,000. This 

 means an average of more than one garden to 

 every two people. (It looks a little, also, as if 

 some of the Marion war gardeners in their en- 

 thusiasm must be having gardens that are 

 twins and triplets.) 



/COMMUNITY gardening, tried this year for the 

 ^ first time in Minneapolis proved a great suc- 

 cess. According to Mr. H. U. Nelson, Secretary of 

 the Minnesota Garden Club, his city ranks first in 

 the country in gardening prowess. Minneapolis 

 has a record of more than 10,000 families raising 

 war gardens on acreage that totals more than 

 2,000, and the crops thereon valued conservatively 

 reach the sum of $500,000. This estimate does 

 not include the 1,500 gardens outside the city 

 limits cultivated by Mihneapolitans, but is al- 

 most wholly vacant lot and waste land gardening, 

 so that the work represents salvage and reclama- 

 tion as well as gardening. Evidently the city 

 gardeners intend the land to stay reclaimed for 

 25,000 small berry bushes were set out beside the 

 regular planting of garden crops. 

 The crop acreage was as follows: 



CROP 



Potatoes 



Onions 



Tomatoes 



Beans 



Cabbage 



Corn 



Peas 



Cucumbers 



Melons 



Beets 



Carrots 



Lettuce 



Radishes 



Parsnips 



Miscellaneous. . . 



2,095 



645 



#161,250 



95 



71,250 



i«5 



5S.500 



200 



28,800 



195 



27,300 



2«0 



20,160 



90 



19,440 



75 



11,250 



80 



10,000 



«5 



9.542 



45 



6,300 



30 



5,100 



2S 



5,000 



25 



3.75° 



40 



7,200 



$441,842 



In the twenty-five largest community gardens 

 435 persons were employed, one unit having 54 

 gardens. 



WHILE Blue Ribbons and Prize Certificates 

 do not seem to fall to the lot of County 

 officials, Register Richardson Webster, of Brook- 

 lyn has been receiving from the National War 

 Garden Commission some very handsome bou- 

 quets, and as Doctor Watts held up to emulation 

 the busy bee, so Mr. Percival Ridsdale, Secre- 

 tary of the National Commission, is prepared 

 to send word of what Register Webster has ac- 

 complished to the Registers, County Clerks, or 

 other officials having charge of land records in 

 counties all over the country. He hopes to 

 stir them up to undertake the same line of work 

 all over the country, "so that in another year the 

 Victory garden movement will be as well devel- 



